Your thoughts on "Gay owned and operated"
 

I saw some comments on this on another board and am wondering what people here think of sites that have "Gay owned and operated" on it.

Has it lost its marketing appeal?

If you were looking to market some gay stuff, would that statement alone make you consider buying from there?

Or do you feel a statement like that is entirely unnecessary?

Any other input?

sounds pretty gay to me. and by gay i mean stupid and by that i mean gays are stupid. :winkwink:

It will make a gay person feel more at home?

No different from a 'we cater to pregos' ... if the title does not help distinguish the intentions, the slogan will have to do.

Homophobes like you are usually halfway in the closet. :1orglaugh

having worked in the gay industry for 4 years I would have to say from my experience that having the title "gay owned an operated" does have an appeal to more weight than other sites. Its a kinship and community - that gay webmasters / surfers would prefer to work with those who understand and have the same attitude towards life as they do. Seeing 'gay' sites owned and operated by 'straight' management gives an overall feel that 'straight' people are not interested in the material but only the Pink Dollar. Something not taken too kindly in the community.

it can be accomplished - and some companies have their 'token' gay salesperson or management to give the appearance of being "gay friendly" rather than "operated"

If your target audience is gays, then of course it can't hurt.

If your target audience is anyone who likes looking at men (i.e. women and gays) then I'd pass on it.

:2 cents:

Edit: Same goes for women ... but it's a bit different. Everyone likes looking at lesbian porn. So if you put "Lesbian owned and operated" on there, you aren't going to turn anyone away. Guys will still look, as will lesbians lol

Very true, and I won't argue that.

I know of a fellow who runs a black dating site, who may want to show his potential members that HE knows what they want too by having "Black owned and operated" on his site. Note that I don't have a problem with EITHER one of those statements on a site.

BUT, if that's the case, why don't we see any "Straight owned and operated" or "White owned and operated."

I can hear the cries of racism and homophobia now.

I am going to venture a guess that a large amount of porn sites are owned by straight white males, and adding that phrase to the site would not do you any good because that's who people expect to be running a lot of these sites.

:2 cents:

I think it works. Every group in society likes to support their own

The majority do not need to be shown the way, as they are 'mainstream'. Minority groups will have a more difficult time finding what they are looking for.

I telemark (the original style of Nordic skiing). I waste an endless amount of time browsing for sites that are telemark specific ... NOT Alpine, NOT snowboard and definitely NOT snowblade/skiboard.

I scramble, not hike! I truly appreciate it when a site tells me its main aim is scrambling, not hiking.

by the thread title i thought a gay person was caught and got his dick cut off :1orglaugh

we are considering adding some gay sites to the program ... just to round it off a bit ... I was told by a few people (biz old timers) that if your not gay and run a gay site ... a lot of the other gay company's will not support you ... they feel that your moving in on there niche ... not sure if it works for surfers but i would think so ..

hah so put "Gay owned and operated" on it and be done with it.

I will support you :thumbsup let me know when you are up and running!

The problem is, most straights do not understand that most of the shit they type (text used to market) offends some, most or all gay persons (and even straights).

Such as HOMOSEXUALITY INCLUDES LESBIANS, so if you bash one, you bash the other (at this point most bigots will say I am fucked or a fag)!

In addition, bigots make anti-fudge packing remarks, yet love anal. Hmm, Freud would have a field day with these clowns.

What about Straight Female Owned and Operated! - Hey, that might pull in all kinds of interesting traffic. . . maybe I should try that.

Cyn

Most straight programs don't market their gay sites properly because they have a misguided perception as to what a gay member wants.

To me it does not matter whether a company is gay owned or not. Yes, I am gay and work for a gay owned company! And yes I support my community but it really makes no difference to me or NakedSword! We will work with any company who is respectful of the gay community and wants to partner and make money! Also in my opinion some of the best minds in the gay porn world are straight women i.e. Chandie, Lisa from Badpuppy and Lori Deak from Menonthe Net. I work with all of these women and they are great to work with and do business with!

Bingo, we have a winner :thumbsup

Regards,

Lee

yeah i dunno anymore these days. i guess the highschool freshman girls over at Teen Revenue just dont do it for me anymore.

C'mon man, that's not fair.

While it probably IS true in most cases, you can't say that unequivocally.

There have got to be some straight people that can successfully market the gay niche AND vice versa.

Would you take kindly to me saying gay people don't know how to market straight stuff?

If i were gay , i would want to buy gay stuff from people who were also gay..

It really shocks me when big affiliate programs start niche sites without any consultation ( it seems ) from someone who actually enjoys that niche.

are you looking for a job? :1orglaugh

Im not saying that unequivocally, im agreeing that MOST straight programs dont have a clue about the gay market or the gay 'niche' as they so often call it.

http://www.gayisnotaniche.com

Here's a great example of a site that was launched recently in the ARS BYOT program..

http://www.totallystraightfags.com

As i say, MOST straight webmasters dont have a clue what they are doing in the gay marketplace and most of them wont ask for help through fear of being labelled 'gay' by their peers.

Regards,

Lee

Gay peeps know what gay peeps want. They want you/surfers to know that you are not getting some cookie cutter site with a few dudes blowing eachother. They want you and the surfers to know that they are being targeted by people in the "know." Just the same as spa's for women, I will see from time to time that they are "owned and operated" by women. I would be more inclined to go there or do the gay/lesbian thing if I knew it wasn't straight people trying to catch my attention, let's face it, how many straight folks really know the gay market? Not a lot!

Not that I want recognition, but:


I keep forgeting about the typical GFY'ers response: too many words.

Id like to say yes it matters, but when you look at the big gay AVS's its not so convincing.

UGAS - GFY - are all str8 owned AFAIK.

Okay, I can appreciate that.

Oh, and my calling it a niche isn't a slam. I would call straight a niche too with many sub and micro niches beneath it.

My WIFE is a niche all unto herself. Trust me.

edit-it isn't MEANT to be a slam at least.

"gay owned and operated" is a very effective marketing tool.i freelanced for a all gay company called Dont Panic(t-shirt company) and they were usually more inclined to work with companies that were gay operated.i think the reason for this is that they thought they would get a better deal and have a great biz relations with the company.i agree..